Prescription for Censorship

by Laura Rosen CohenLaura's LinksApril 28, 2020

https://www.steynonline.com/10261/prescription-for-censorship

These cute doctors made way too much sense for YouTube, apparently.

Greetings and a beleaguered "Shalom" to you all from my sixth glorious week of "Stay Home You Stupid Proles Because If You Object to House Arrest You Want to Kill Old People And Puppies" home lockdown because of the Chinese Bat Virus. You can obviously tell how delighted I am to be filing this column once again from my tastefully appointed home office kitchen table replete with all my standard domestic duties and the 24-hour personal tutoring services. Can you picture my face???

Right. We are still pissed at communist China although I'm inclined to cut them some slack if their experts were responsible for this. Kidding kidding, just relax. It is actually really, really hard to find sufficiently delicate and truly ladylike words to describe how irritated I remain with our pathetic "leaders" and their "plans" to "re-open" our lives. The plan remains no plan. They haven't got a clue, and as Mark said on Rush, if shutting everything down was Plan A, there is no Plan B. And if you question the orthodoxy, and the actual reasons for certain policies, and you want, you know, facts and evidence, or if you want to go outside, apparently you want everyone to die. Nuts. To. That.

Cute American doctors from California talk sense about the lockdowns. Annnnd censored by YouTube. Because of course.

Must, must, must listen to this podcast: Brendan O'Neill interviews Heather Mac Donald about our current era of global madness. Highly recommended. I concur with her thesis and O'Neill adds some more meat to the bones. Have a listen and let me know what you think in the comments.

It's open thread time! As always, Laura's Links serves as SteynOnline's weekly open thread, so comment away on any of the stories Laura's hand-picked for you, or other thoughts from the past week. If you want to join in on the fun, join the Mark Steyn Club, whose many perks include commenting privileges. The Mark Steyn Cruise is still scheduled to set sail down the Mediterranean in October, with Conrad Black, Michele Bachmann, Douglas Murray and Mark himself among the distinguished guests.

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25 Member Comments

"Coronavirus: China Continues to Flood the World with Defective Medical Supplies" (04/25/20)

I must thank these thieves for doing this. They could not be doing anything more stupider; this will greatly facilitate uniting the entire world against these arrogant murderers.

Don Reed • May 6, 2020 at 22:43

The Mr. Zimm obituary was absolutely first-rate. People such as him never get publicized (and may not want any). I regret having never met such people.

Paul Harmon • Apr 29, 2020 at 13:21

Mark, perhaps off topic, but I find the fact that Bimbo-eruption-Chieftainette Hillary Clinton has endorsed Biden in the face of the Tara Reade scandal, and that she's calling HRC out on that very fact, to be rife with opportunity for comment. If nothing else, Tara (a leftist citizen) is being mugged by reality.

Ray Winchester • Apr 29, 2020 at 09:00

Hi Mark, do you think this is close.1. Someone walked out of L4 lab in Wuhan infected. (Not L2 lab near wet market). This probably happened in Oct/Nov 2019. The wet market did not sell Horseshoe bats as an example.2. CCP hid it past January 14th with corrupt WHO still saying there was no human - to - human transmission. It was in the UK in December or earlier.3. Taiwan said on the 31st Dec that their was human to human transmission. No one listened as China had banned them from the corrupt WHO.4. I seen reports of 15 per 100,000 mortality rate in January from Taiwan. 0.015%.5. The farce begins. Prof Neil Ferguson releases his report from Imperial college London. He used a 13 year old computer model. He said 500,000 people would die in the UK if nothing done. He will not release the code to his poop in/poop out computer code. Very like warming alarmists.6. UK and USA listened to him and locked down. The farce really took hold.7. The MSM then scared everyone in the West (except Sweden).8. Moving on now to Bakersfield Doctors. Rate actually 0.03%. The vast majority with pre-existing conditions.9. English study shows 95% of mortality have severe pre-existing conditions. So mortality rate 0.0015% of healthy.10. Another report shows BAME people more likely to catch it as gene susceptibility (and others). No way of protecting against that.11. The Great Wuhan Bat Flu Farce continues.

Josh Passell • Apr 29, 2020 at 06:17

Sweden, Sweden, Sweden...sorry, that's not an ABBA B-side, just my playing for time to organize my thoughts. The Swedish model (doesn't that conjure impure thoughts?!) succeeds or fails in the eyes of the beholder--and on which country it's being compared to. Sweden has a Wuhan Biolab death rate of 12%, more than double the USA's, but "respectable" for Western Europe (though its nordic neighbors come in with about a third of Sweden's stiffs). Counting deaths by population, Sweden still out-dies the US by about 30%, and triples or even quadruples the deaths of its Scandinavian homies. (These numbers are drawn this morning from the Johns Hopkins tote-board of mortality.) Did they take early the medicine we all must take; or did they just tell their old folk there's a time to be Bjorn and a time to die?

Laura Rosen Cohen Josh Passell • Apr 29, 2020 at 10:39

A time to be Bjorn and a time to die. LOL. Good one.

Fran Lavery Josh Passell • May 3, 2020 at 12:21

Too funny, Josh! And didn't WHO make an about face and say the Swedish model was the one to follow? WHO wouldn't just last month.

Damien Carbury • Apr 29, 2020 at 06:00

I might also add that former Australian Deputy PM, serial backstabber and political cockroach Julie Bishop is also trying to smooth ruffled Chicom feathers in her new academic career. My only quibble with Mark is that he was fooled by Miss Bishop into thinking she was either a conservative or a friend of free speech. She talks a wonderful game with her smooth, forked tongue.

Damien Carbury • Apr 29, 2020 at 05:36

I am absolutely gobsmacked.

Andrew Forrest buys ten million Covid test kits from China and invites a Chinese diplomat into a Government presser as his guest. Said diplomat is then interviewed by assembled media. Anything to sell those good Aussie minerals to the Chicoms huh, Twiggy? What a sell out jerk.

Brian from Minneapolis • Apr 29, 2020 at 05:13

The problem that Trump has and he knows is that he can't afford to be wrong about restarting the economy the way the WHO and the other so called "experts" are allowed to be because our nation is conditioned to be disappointed when these "experts" get things wrong but get mad when an "unqualified" person, as many view Trump, makes decisions for them regarding their health when they're not a doctor and they get it wrong. Trump isn't in the position as a Democrat would be if he were to open the economy back up and be allowed to get it wrong. It'd be another impeachment trial for Trump if one isn't in the works already.

Laura Rosen Cohen Brian from Minneapolis • Apr 29, 2020 at 10:40

I'm not convinced any type of "plan" is necessary. Just open. People can make their own decisions regarding their safety and that of their family.

Brian from Minneapolis Laura Rosen Cohen • Apr 29, 2020 at 20:58

I'm worried that Trump supporters are going to turn on him because they think he's listening to people who are giving an answer they don't want to hear. As much as I don't like the answers they give it's clear he didn't want to be surrounded by "yes men/women" or however they identify themselves. Trying to play both sides isn't an exact science and he's trying to do that by listening to his task force and the American people.

Bottom line is that if we abandon Trump after this and think that things are going to get better, think again. We are witnessing what will happen if Trump is removed. We will be like China and the slave labor factories will be here in our nation when it becomes apparent that more people would rather get a check from the government than work and when that happens, if they decide you're not a certain exempt class of "American", you will find yourself in a sweatshop for the rest of your life. This is a crisis that has tested our patience and our faith and we can't give in because if we lose, the new normal will become our new reality.

Todd Lewis • Apr 28, 2020 at 23:29

Yes Laura I can picture your face. My wife has the exact same office arrangement and the same set of duties. I usually steer clear and stay in my man cave.

Laura Rosen Cohen Todd Lewis • Apr 29, 2020 at 10:40

You are a wise man, Todd.

Owen Morgan • Apr 28, 2020 at 21:15

From now on, the Great Wall of China has to be there to protect us from what is inside China.

Steven Payne • Apr 28, 2020 at 21:11

Recently, I was on Facebook and saw a funny video that a friend had shared. I shared it and others shared it off my page. The video was of a woman explaining the "rules" of coronavirus. At first, I thought it was real and that the woman was some politician like a mayor. However it didn't fool me long as it got funnier and funnier.It started out with her saying: "It is imperative to stay home... unless you have a reason to go out and then you can go out. The stores are closed... except for the stores that are open." It went on like that and was hilarious.I went on FB this morning and the video has been scrubbed everywhere.I'm disgusted.

Josh Passell Steven Payne • Apr 29, 2020 at 05:58

I know the exact video you mean, Steven: a comedienne named Adley. It's not as readily available as before, but I still found sites where it plays by searching for Adley Instagram. Yes funny, yes funnier and funnier, yes hilarious--and yes, so underplayed that she sounds pretty much like my governor, Charlie Baker (not Parker!). She singlehandedly defrocks all the charlatans posing as emperors in state houses across the fruited plain.

Michael Seth • Apr 28, 2020 at 20:34

Laura, thanks very much for the Heather MacDonald interview. She used the word "decadent" to describe the universal lockdown reaction to the virus. I completely agree. The worship of personal safety and the inability to cope with even moderate risk has become untenable. She asks whether any Western leader can actually tell people a truth, namely that we must reopen despite a relatively small increase in the number of deaths, and survive. I do not believe Donald Trump can do that in the current atmosphere of poisonous rhetoric coming from both the media and individual Democrats. They are hopelessly infantile and incapable of course correction. Interestingly, MacDonald noted this is most likely to change when those elites now largely insulated from the hardships of the lockdown stop getting their fresh food deliveries. I agree that nothing short of supply chain disruptions (or worse) will change enough opinions. We seem to be headed to such a point very soon, so maybe that's a silver lining. The interview is loaded with great analysis and especially MacDonald's passion, or should I say appropriate level of despair. I agree it's worth an hour of everyone's time.

Fran Lavery Â Michael Seth • Apr 28, 2020 at 21:43

It sounds like Heather McDonald is like the drumstick of the feast today, Michael! Will not pass that one up!

Laura Rosen Cohen Michael Seth • Apr 29, 2020 at 10:42

Hi Michael, I'm glad you listened to it and I agree that "decadent" is appropriate. I listened to it on one of my escape from House Arrest walks with my son and I actually physically paused several times in order to nod in awe and had to stifle the urge to scream out loud in agreement.

Owen Morgan • Apr 28, 2020 at 19:41

Laura, many thanks for the link to the Brendan O'Neill/Heather Mac Donald podcast. I normally manage to keep up with Spiked's stuff, but I had missed that - and it should be compulsory listening, for those trying to take permanent control of our lives.

Laura Rosen Cohen Owen Morgan • Apr 29, 2020 at 10:44

Hi Owen, my pleasure and I'm really glad you had a listen. It's one of the most sensible things I've heard since this madness began, along with Mark on Rush on Monday and Tuesday of this week. Especially Monday! Mark went in to some detail about the overreach of government and this tyrannical farce of SAFETY. I hope you caught some of those shows.

Stephen Savageau • Apr 28, 2020 at 19:09

All hail Laura Rosen Cohen!I love you links and comments; although, reading the whole beastie with all the links is a lot like eating a whole Thanksgiving Dinner all by youself. Here are two highlights (one unintended): There was a pair of sentences by Dr. Jennifer Cassidy in your "Lovely" link. "I'm not crying. You're crying. Wait we're all crying." A Material, eh.And your mention of staying angry matches the email I just minutes ago sent to my brother (long but mehopes worth it)
Reba n' I have promised that, when this scourge gets done, we gonna walk through the door in a happy merry unscathed state, having cured ourselves from the disease of getting squirrel-ly or too intense. Fella on the TV or the internet warns about feelings of depression. As though rolling yourself into a potato bug marble would be a natural, though self defeated, state. I confess to my own squirrels: becoming Byronic or Melvillian with too many look'a there's into the Divine theater of human life.It's like a drug, reading Dover Beach or William James. Soon enough I get that self inflicted sour. Reba has her own squirrels; only has to look at the drug house 'cross the street. We found a new cure and mantra.

We get non-destructively angry. We do the famous let the tension out exercise that begins with, "First touch the sky, take a deep breath, and hold that pose for 20 seconds ....." Our difference is that, when we exhale, we say our new mantra, "Mad as Hell!"

?Mad as Hell? You may want to diminish the words' power; don't. Mad as Hell is short and business like; it's easy to remember. Go ahead and say the mantra, "Mad as Hell." Repeat the words until they get integrated into your speech. Soon the words'll come up in an almost involuntary expression.

!Mad as Hell! Stand and say it in a conversation voice. Notice how those vital juices are flowing and the lungs draw in more nourishing oxygen. And you feel better. True fact! The world is as world is; the virus is as virus is. You can't control it, but your life may only be a tangent to the scourge. You (and Mad as Hell) can remain in control; you need not suffer the destructive force of feeling sad. Try it..

Fran Lavery Â Stephen Savageau • Apr 28, 2020 at 20:27

Good analogy, Stephen! Going solo on Thanksgiving dinner.

After it's all consumed and people are about to fall out of their chairs, the hostess asks, "Dessert (Human Grace) anyone?" They all seem to hang around for more.

But after every Thanksgiving turkey dinner, I seem to say the same thing: "I'm not sure I even like turkey and dinner with all the trimmings was a little too filling, so next year I'll just skip and go straight for dessert."

Laura Rosen Cohen Stephen Savageau • Apr 29, 2020 at 10:47

Hi Steven. I'm definitely angry and not sad. Although I did have a very sad moment last week when I went to pick up some of my son's specialized equipment from his school last week. My son, who is non-verbal just looked at me in the car, wanting to get out when we pulled up in front and having seen his teacher. Before we pulled away, and when he realized he wasn't going to school he gave me a look that pretty much shattered my heart into bits and pieces and I cried the whole way home. So although there are already many reasons why I hate the Chinese communists, I can now put at the top of my list that I loathe and despise them for breaking my heart that day and my son's as well.